Smart? cars

We hesitate to spread this news too widely but our concern for owners of the growing number of silly too expensive lightweight smart cars around outweighs our reticence. We suggest that owners of ‘smart’ cars consider carefully where they park for any length of time. There are vandals about and they may get tired after a while of just ripping up greenery from the too many flowerpots in town. Whether in Halifax or Wolfville, harbourside might be chancy.

Dutch pranksters in Amsterdam have dumped dozens of the tiny two-seater cars into the city’s waterways.

And now police fear the bizarre trend will spread to the UK and the rest of Europe.

Eco-friendly Smart cars are small enough to be picked up by just a few people and dumped into the Dutch capital’s canals, reports De Telegraaf newspaper.[source]

We saw this story some time ago – those who follow our news tips on the sidebar may have noticed it earmarked there – but we didn’t mention it in a post because we didn’t want to inadvertently encourage anyone to do mischief. It seems the sales people don’t want to mention it either.

One Smart sales worker said: “We’re not supposed to talk about this because the police don’t want the craze to spread but we’ve had quite a few drowned cars returned to us.”

But it seems the “craze” has already spread to Canada so we think a warning is in order.

The Alberta owner of a so-called “Smartie”, who found it tipped on its side, was so furious he posted photos on the Internet and offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

Another man whose three-year-old Smart car was reportedly flipped outside a home in west Seattle in June, causing thousands of dollars in damage, attracted digs from sport utility owners and sympathy from others when he wrote about it on a blog. …

Some may think tipping over cars is harmless fun, but under the Criminal Code of Canada, mischief is a potentially serious offence, said Sanjeev Anand, a law professor at the University of Alberta.

“I think it’s important for the public to understand that when you interfere with someone’s property and you damage someone’s property, it’s not a simple prank. It is a criminal offence,” he said.

A conviction carries a variety of potential punishments, including a maximum sentence of between two and 10 years in jail.